Flight of the Endeavor
by Kylandor
Summary: "We are the Bentusi, the unbound. We have created this collection of historical documents for the races of the Milky Way Galaxy." Thanks to an ancient library found in Japan, the Terrans accelerated their technology forward three hundred years. The device warned of an enemy and they prepared but it was still insufficient. A lone ship with an eccentric crew would be their salvation.
1. Prologue

Chapter 1: Prologue.

"All that moves in the void is easily seen." - The Bentusi

* * *

A large room full of tubes, circuitry and other electrical components began to light up, a metallic cylinder rose from the center of the room. A voice or rather more accurately, voices, spoke.

"We are the Bentusi, for eons we have existed with the benefits of hyperspace travel established the outer rim trade routes and encountered many races both benevolent and malevolent. But two races stand out among the rest, linked in both exile and bloodshed."

"The Hiigarans from our galaxy, who were exiled to a desert planet but managed to not only steal away their hyperspace core with them, but rebuild it and return to their homeworld against all odds four thousand years after their exile."

"The other race are the Terrans from our closest neighboring galaxy to which we fled from a dark power that would have us bound, a fate worse than death to our people."

"The Terrans like the Hiigarans, were exiled though they were never threatened with extermination, they still suffered just as much, if not more, death and suffering."

"Before we tell the tale of either, we must first explain the circumstances of us and our interactions with this galaxy."

* * *

"10 years ago, we fled our galaxy which the Terrans call Andromeda to this galaxy, that which they call the Milky Way. It has many names for many cultures, we have our name for it, the Taiidan theirs, the Turanic Raiders and so forth. For the sake of record keeping as much of the Terran homeworld has been torn asunder by nuclear fire, we will refer to the systems and galaxies whose names are disputed by Terran standards, other records exist and thus the statement of their local identities beyond that of what was communicated during the war would be unnecessarily redundant."

"When we arrived in this galaxy, we first came into contact with the Transvaal Empire, the same nation that would five years later launch a horrible and unprovoked attack on the Terrans much like the ancient Hiigaran Empire before the exile did to many cultures that had yet to discover the gift of hyperspace travel."

"We shared knowledge and technology with the Transvaal we met, told them of our galaxy, of the Taiidan, of the Beast, that we are unaware of what happened on the other side, we fear the worst, that the beast came and bound our brothers. We have hope however that our brothers were perhaps capable of sealing off the Hyperspace Conduit to prevent pursuit and were also able to either escape or destroy themselves before they could be bound. We were also aware of a Hiigaran kiith, Somtaaw who were attempting to fight and destroy the beast. Perhaps they succeeded, perhaps they did not. We can only hope, assume and perhaps pray."

"We learned much of this galaxy, of it's major and minor powers from the Transvaal, of an enemy invading from another universe, of ancient relics belonging to several precursor civilizations. What follows next is a revelation that shocked even us, the unbound."

"The Great Progenitor Empire was thought to have existed anywhere between ten thousand to fifty thousand years ago, we now know it existed for far longer and that the relics in our galaxy were the efforts of a recent and ill-fated colonization attempt, running afoul of whatever horror afflicted them. We had been aware for some time of the progenitors, it was their hyperspace cores that gave us and the exiles the gift of interstellar travel, and what will precipitate the end times, if our galaxy does not succumb to the beast before then."

"This galaxy, the Milky Way, has four major powers currently, and when we arrived, it had five."

"The Five that existed before were the Transvaal Empire, Valkyur Regency, Galactic Federation, Outer Rim Alliance and the Val'Fasq Empire."

"For the sake of avoiding unnecessary redundancy, we will reveal only that of recent times, the Terran Republic has risen as a major galactic power in the short time span of five years since the onset of the war, fueled not by the husks of their enemies that they originally believed would take them here, but by an ancient and powerful ship known only as the Foundry. We have found many ruined and non-functional ones in our galaxy, but in this galaxy, at least one had survived, perhaps more exist, this galaxy is more unexplored than our own."

"We had dealings with the Terrans, seeing similarities between them and the exiles as well as other reasons but recognizing the lack of any galactic council in this galaxy, we traded with them cautiously, the unbound are powerful, but so are the nations of this galaxy. Granted they took longer to reach the stars and did so with a different method than us, but also their discovery of ancient artifacts and the reverse engineering of them accelerated their development, had these artifacts never been found, they would be on equal footing with the Terrans."

"From what we could tell, three ancient civilizations used to dominate much of this galaxy."

"The Progenitor Empire"

"The EDEN Civilization"

"The Chozo Civilization"

"Before we begin the tale of the Terrans, we must explain why the Transvaal acted as they did, the Terran Grand Admiral requested this be recorded to avoid any future animosity between the two nations and to prevent his people from becoming what they fought so hard to break free from."

"The discovery of the wormhole that led to the Terran sector was a strategic asset, a veteran of both the Third Transvaal-Federation War and the Transvaal War of Succession, Admiral Volcott O'Huey, was given a large military force to escort colonization and engineering fleets into the wormhole to exploit the other side as a way to gain strategic advantage over the Galactic Federation, however it should also be noted that Admiral O'Huey was embittered against both the Federation and Pre-FTL civilizations during his service. The specifics do not need to be mentioned in the prologue for sake of avoiding unnecessary redundancy."

"We hope those who look upon this record will understand that the actions of the few should not be made to measure the entire mindset of a civilization, we Bentusi once made such mistakes in the distant past, we have learned to rise up above such petty thinking, we hope that the other races follow our path as well and become unbound as we are. Perhaps one day, we can return to our home galaxy and should the Beast remain, then we shall burn it with the support of our new allies, using weapons never thought possible, using new ways of traversing space."

* * *

File End.

* * *

Afterword:

I hope you've enjoyed reading this prologue as I enjoyed writing it. I will say a few things here in the afterword to clarify a few things, I will also check reviews and answer at least one question in the following chapter afterwords.

1\. This is a large scale crossover, the primary entries are: The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, Galaxy Angel, Homeworld, Valkyria Chronicles & Metroid.

2\. Other items may enter based on a variety of factors.

3\. I will be focusing on this story for a while then I will refocus on ABS:Evolution, the plan is to alternate between the stories as a solution to bypass writers block.

4\. Due to a mega-heatwave in California, I may end up taking longer than usual to publish new chapters, sorry for any delays.

5\. I am also in the process of reading some of Alastair Reynold's books set in the Revelation Space universe and thus this may affect the rate at which I publish new chapters, the first page of Galactic North has already hooked me. If any of you have any recommendations or know the chronology of the series I would appreciate the information.

6\. Whilst the Bentusi are the main storyteller here, thanks to a combination of cybernetic memory copy-pasting and access to the TNS Endeavor's archive, information will not be solely revealed by the Bentusi, however they will play a major role in later chapters.

7\. This takes place several years after Haruhi has graduated from high school. A few years after Homeworld: Cataclysm (with these Bentusi unaware of the events of Homeworld 2 as they have lost contact with their galaxy.) and as far as Galaxy Angel, Valkyria Chronciles and Metroid goes, it is an alternate universe entirely, not in line with manga, anime or games but will stick to as much lore as possible with regards to character personalities. Galaxy Angel Characters will behave similarly to their manga counterparts, the Valkyur in this story are a thriving galactic civilization with the planet the Valkyria Chronicles games takes place on is a lost colony.


	2. S1E1

S1E1: Escape

 _ **Disclaimer: The following is a work of fiction upon fiction, I do not own Galaxy Angel, Homeworld series, The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, Metroid and other third party copyrighted works in this fiction.**_

 _ **I do however retain ownership of the character Raymond Zenji, who is my personally created Original Character. As mentioned beforehand, the following is a work of fiction and any events and characters described in here are either fictitious from other series or fictitious from my creative imagination. Any similarity between these events and any other events, past, present or future are entirely coincidental. If these events have occurred or are occurring in another universe should other universes actually exist, this is also pure coincidence, as coincidence is a perceived reality.**_

 _ **You get the idea, on with the story!**_

* * *

 **Terran Defense Navy Terms:**

 **Port is Right, Starboard is left, Dorsal is Above, Ventral is below.**

* * *

Accessing files...

Sequencing files...

Establishing chronology...

Initiating playback...

* * *

Location: Low Earth Orbit, 34 miles above the US East Coast. Date: July 7th, 2023 AD. Time: 12:22 PM, Eastern Standard Time.

* * *

The Atlantic Ocean and US Eastern Seaboard was a beautiful sight from space, even this measly 34 miles up. Normally most orbital infrastructure would consider this too close for comfort, but infrastructure was not what this scene was showcasing as a wing of five fast moving strike craft whizzed by the viewscreen, the center of view moved away from the Earth and towards space, a massive conflict was occurring, streaks of bright blue light shot across the lifeless void to surgically cut off the turrets of spaceships and rip into their critical systems. The technology gap between the two fleets was made obvious as the Fleet closest to the planet was returning fire primarily with missiles and kinetic weapons. The missiles were mostly intercepted by laser discharges and close range point defenses such as smaller missiles and railguns.

The viewscreen began to center on one specific vessel which rather than focusing on fighting the enemy, was attempting to breach through the enemy fleet.

This was the TNS Endeavor, a Destroyer class vessel which carried a mission that could not fail, carrying the very thing that had advanced humanity's technology so far beyond it's development rate.

 **Archive Note:**

 **The TNS Endeavor is the first Endeavor class Destroyer used by the Terran Defense Navy. It is considered a Special Operations Destroyer by the Transvaal Empire and a Heavy Destroyer by the Galactic Federation, the Bentusi simply consider it a Destroyer along with the Terrans.**

 **It is 408 feet in length, 92 feet in height and 216 feet in width. It is divided into five major sections. The Bow contains four forward missile silos, two heavy torpedo bays, two heavy railguns, one ventral, one dorsal. It also contains an experimental High Energy Free Electron Laser or HE-FEL array on the front end of the bow, this HE-FEL array is one of the few weapons the Terrans had that were superior to Standard Transvaal weaponry at the time of first contact, the HE-FEL mounted on the Endeavor class is roughly 32 times more powerful than an Imperial Battleship's HELLs (High Energy Laser Lance) However the Terrans do not have as an effective heat management system, thus the cooldown rate for the weapon is more than ten times higher than a battleship HELL, though is roughly equal with an Imperial Frigate's HELL. It should be noted that The smaller the ship, the less effective the heat management system as all space based heat management is extremely dependent on total surface area due to the laws of thermodynamics coupled with how heat is dissipated in a vacuum (Entirely through radiation). The other sections are the Ballistic Warfare Module which is directly behind the Bow Section, behind the BWM is the Command Module which houses the Primary, Secondary and Tetriary Bridges and the Crew Quarters. The Hangar Module is behind the Command Module and typically houses shuttles, supplies and other non-personal cargo and resources except for active munitions which are stored throughout all modules in electable and self-contained sub-sections. Behind the Hangar Module is the Propulsion Module which houses the Engineering section responsible for the Endeavor's Manufacturing and Resourcing Subsystems as well as being the mount for both conventional drive engines and the Warp Drive. (The TNS Endeavor was at the time of first contact, the only Terran ship capable of faster than light travel.)**

 **Full Weapons Complement: Two 48 Cell Missile Batteries, one Ventral, one Dorsal, located in the Ballistic Warfare Module. Six EMRG-112 "Morningstar" Heavy Railguns, Three Dorsal, Three Ventral. Two Located in the Bow, Two in the Ballistic Warfare Module, One (Dorsal) on the Hangar Module and one (Ventral) on the Command Module. One 1.82 Terrawatt High Energy Free Electron Laser Array, mounted on the ships bow, specifically on the "Nose" of the ship. 300 Automated Close Quarters Defense 35mm 8-barrel Gatling Cannons. 40 manned EMRG-42 "David" Light Railguns placed across the ship's modules. Various mission-purpose weapons can be fitted onto the innovative interchangeable weapon ports fitted for the Morningstar and David railgun emplacements.**

 **Hull Profile (Shields retracted): Similar to a kind of broadsword, the port and starboard are long and angled to the point of being a cutting edge, the "nose" of the ship curves like the tip of a blade though not perfectly nor sharply due to the weapons systems mounted on the nose. The Nose is more heavily armored than the sides of the ship though the curve's angle is not as effective as the sides. The Engines are compact yet efficient and somewhat appear as a stubbed grip attached to the "blade". The Primary Bridge is the only obvious command structure on the ship's exterior, it is heavily armored and though low-profile, still apparent to the naked eye and effective RADAR (RAdio Detection And Ranging) and/or LADAR (LAser Detection And Ranging)**

 **Hull Profile (Shields Extended): The Starboard and Port Shields (See below) when extended can vary in appearance as they are able to be rotated and have interchangeable mounts that are both sturdy and having the mounts themselves extendable from a protective trench. Typically the Shields are extended at a 45 degree angle, usually in the direction of the oncoming weapons fire.**

 **Hull Profile (Atmospheric Configuration): The Extendable shields can appear as Wings similar to say a Pre-Library F-4 Phantom but with a less extended profile.**

 **The port and starboard sides of the Endeavor are completely void of armaments, instead containing extendable armored shields which are shields of a conventional nature, that is a large, heavy armor section extended away from critical systems as a means of defense. They are also designed to rotate and be aerodynamic when rotated properly, thus the Endeavor is one of the rare examples of a ship designed for both Vacuum and Atmospheric combat, when in Atmospheric configuration, the Endeavor is capable of out-maneuvering even Imperial Strike Frigates that are designed for space warfare. Recently after the war the Transvaal and Galactic Federation have begun designing various methods to allow "Multi-role" Ships though thus far the most efficient and effective methods are in the hands of the Terran Defense Navy. The TNS Endeavor's conventional propulsion system is a type of fusion drive made possible by the Library's database. It was faster than other ships of the same caliber though also consumes more fuel as a result, though given the abundance of hydrogen in the universe, this was not a serious concern.**

 **Further details located in another file.**

 **End Archive Note:**

* * *

Accessing Point of View: Acting Captain Raymond Zenji. Age: 30, Official Rank: Commander, Terran Defense Navy. Country of Origin: United States of America

* * *

The captain was dead, killed in the surprise attack, the bridge itself was heavily damaged, half the bridge crew had perished when the hull was breached, the remaining half barely reached their EVA Suits, thanks to the Library they were no longer cumbersome and time consuming to enter, humanity would still be in the early digital age if not for the Library.

Ray, of both Hispanic and Portuguese descent, an American citizen and thanks to cybernetics and his high tactical proficiency, the most logical choice for being the second in command of Earth's first Interstellar ship.

He shouted orders to his crew, saying "Evasive Burn to port, train all railguns on targets obstructing our path, I want all non-essential power diverted to engines, we break the blockade or die trying!"

His ship's engines roared as they began to burn through their helium-3 stores immensely, pushing the ship to such high velocities that the ship was now pushing at 2 Gs despite inertial dampeners.

Ray accessed internal communications as one of their escort frigates erupted into an explosion and said "How much longer for the Warp Drive to be operational?"

A feminine voice replied through the intercom, saying "Two minutes until drive is fully charged." Her calm voice despite the chaos ensuring around them and the shock of losing almost all of their command crew gave Ray enough cause to trust that assessment and he shouted another order, saying "Evasive pattern Delta, target the alien heavy cruiser ahead of us with the SPC Railgun Shells and then immediately switch to evasive pattern alpha once the magazine is expended!"

The ship's forward railguns all aimed at the massive vessel three times the Endeavor's size and fired their rounds, as this was a battle in space, there was no sound, the railgun shells impacted their target's energy shielding and detonated in green blasts of highly charged plasma, shattering the target's frontal shield and allowing the second salvo to completely destroy the ship's bridge, for a moment, the vessel was listing to port, another salvo hit the ship's smelted bow and caused a chain reaction underneath one of it's large turrets, resulting in a blue lighted cascade explosion which ripped the ship clean in half.

After the salvos ceased from the Endeavor's railguns, another hostile cruiser arrived, coming out of a massive blue pulse reminiscent of a some old sci-fi movies and shows forms of FTL, though the actual method was far more abnormal, and currently unknown. The entire attack was sudden, the enemy made no communications, no overtures, arrived in force and their first action was to destroy all of Earth's orbital military infrastructure. Their second was to mass-bombard all major urban population centers with thermonuclear missiles and railgun shells. Theatre Missile Defense was useless against the enemy missile's energy shields and the return launch from Earth's silos, mobile launchers and submarines was entirely intercepted, not one old ICBM made it past atmosphere.

The second hostile cruiser unleashed a massive barrage of orange arcs of energy moving at half lightspeed, the first salvo struck the Endeavor's dorsal heavy railgun and smelted it immediately. Before the second salvo could fire however the Endeavor executed a sudden thruster jolt directly up, evading the second salvo as the hostile ship's weapons could not compensate for the maneuver in time.

Ray shouted again, saying "Ventral Missile Batteries, launch all loaded warheads direct onto the enemy cruiser's bridge and main guns!"

The Endeavor's ventral launchers opened their blast doors and launched at the hostile cruiser which was now less than 300 yards away, the missiles detonated with extremely high temperature plasma warheads, again causing a cascade reaction in the ship's systems, this time the entire ship erupted into a full explosion, scorching the Endeavor's below-side hull and melting it's blast doors in place, preventing them from closing again.

Two more Terran ships approached from behind, one destroyer and one battleship. The battleship moved to the Starboard side of the Endeavor to shield it from a High Energy Laser barrage from a hostile dreadnought and the Endeavor's sister ship, the TNS Ningbo, primarily crewed by Chinese personnel, launched a missile barrage from it's top-side silos, the missiles however began emitting high temperatures and strong light emissions and moved into a scattered pattern as a missile salvo from the hostile battleship took the decoys and detonated at a safe distance away from the battle group.

Ray received a communication from the battleship, the TNS Bismark, a German vessel. On the other end was a Captain Otto Hans who spoke, saying "Endeavor, we will cover your escape. Report ship and mission status."

Ray replied, saying "Ventral Missile Batteries inoperative, Dorsal Batteries loaded with Active Decoys, Forward Launchers are loading 4-KT Spears, Bow Launchers destroyed by enemy railguns. Engines operating in a full burn, FTL ready to activate in fifty six seconds. Asset is secure. Most bridge officers including Captain Nishinmura are dead. Commander Raymond Zenji reporting. Proceeding to Primary mission objective."

Captain Hans replied, saying "TNS Bismark and TNS Ningbo will cover your flanks, disregard primary objective and proceed to secondary objective. Bismark out."

Ray nodded and said "Roger-Wilco, Endeavor out." and then shouted new orders to his crew, saying "Proceed onto course 1-2-4 Mark 6. Deploy flares individually at 15 second intervals, unguided launch. Execute FTL jump to Proxima Centauri as soon as FTL is charged and a clear path is charted."

The battlegroup changed direction to starboard as a new hostile battleship arrived via FTL, the ship was larger than the average enemy Battleship but not exactly as large as their dreadnoughts either. Writing along the ship's bow identified the ship as the Elsior, one of the oddities of this seemingly alien invader is that their written language, based on their ship markings, was similar to Kanji, one of Japan's written language forms.

The Bismark quickly maneuvered to get between the Elsior and the Endeavor, the latter of which made a sudden jolt using it's maneuvering thrusters to make a quick near-stop and then proceeding to maneuver sideways to port as the Elsior fired it's bow mounted main gun, the massive beam of a light blue energy cut right through the Bismark like a hot knife through butter, not only slicing through it but also slicing it clean in half and causing an explosive reaction at the impact area, if the Endeavor had not maneuvered to the side, it would have been completely enveloped in the beam, instead it was only nicked, though that nick completely smelted a portion of the outer hull armor.

Ray shouted in the intercom, saying "Execute an emergency Warp Jump with the energy built up thus far, we stay, we die!"

The Ningbo maneuvered below the Endeavor and fired a salvo of plasma warhead missiles from it's ventral missile silos to no effect, the Elsior's shields were a cut above the rest, in fact, even the architectural design was slightly different from normal hostile Battleships. It discharged a volley of laser fire which was so high in frequency and temperature that the beams were pure white to the naked eye, slicing the Ningbo into three separate sections.

Just before the Ningbo's reactor went critical however, the Endeavor was enveloped in a region of bending space, a kind of bubble which then lurched the ship forward to the perception of the alien ships. To Ray and the crew of the Endeavor's perception, the stars in the void of space grew brighter briefly before blue shifting into the ultraviolet spectrum (Which is invisible to the naked eye) and the black void became blue shifted, making space look like a bright blue light background momentarily. Their first FTL jump lasted only two seconds, but it was enough to propel them more than 300,000 miles from the Earth.

Due to the nature of Warp Travel, there was no inertial difference from the ship's normal state and it's relative velocity, Warp Drives do not actually propel the ship forward directly but propel it indirectly by warping space around it, thus there is no need to compensate for extreme inertial stresses as they only exist onto space itself, which is the only thing known to be able to sustain the stress of actual FTL velocities.

Ray spoke onto the intercom, saying "How much time did the short jump cost us?"

The response came back, the feminine voice saying "As we only jumped for two seconds, we only expended a relatively low amount of energy for the drive. It will be fully ready for a sustained jump in approximately 60 seconds."

As always the Endeavor's chief engineer was calm, seemingly emotionless, whether she actually had no emotion or was simply so well composed that she never lets it show was debated.

Ray set the intercom for shipwide and said "Attention crew, this is acting Captain Raymond Zenji speaking. As you may have noticed, we have executed an emergency warp jump to escape destruction. According to sensors, we are approximately 300,000 miles away from our previous position. I want a full damage report relayed to the secondary bridge, as of now I am ordering all surviving bridge officers to the secondary bridge, the primary bridge is exposed to the vacuum and thus also to any cosmic radiation. All bridge crew including myself will submit to a medical exam after it has been deemed safe for us to stand down from condition one. I want a medical team to report to the secondary bridge and remain on standby until we exit condition one. Acting Captain out."

Ray looked at the bridge crew around him and they gave their silent acknowledgements. They gathered what they could and needed and proceeded deeper into the ship's hull.

* * *

Accessing Point of View: Takuto "Tact" Mayers. Age:21, Rank: Captain, Imperial Transvaal Navy. Location: TNV Elsior. Time:+30 seconds from previous archive file end.

 **Log Note: The Transvaal Common Language will be identified as Transvaal Common (or simply "common" among Transvaal) as whilst it is similar to one of the Terran languages, Japanese, it is not exact and there are numerous differences. This historical record does not contain detailed explanations of the differences between these two languages, to understand these differences, please consult the Galactic Codex of Mainstream Languages.**

* * *

Captain Mayers was in the captain's chair, accessing the holographic display which gave him real time tactical information from the Elsior's sensors and crew reports, the file management system was clearly beyond anything the Terrans had prior to accessing the Library.

This was the reason the Transvaal had attacked Earth, it was believed that if they did not act soon, the Library would either be damaged or the Terrans would have built a device that they could not be trusted to responsibly handle. However despite Admiral Volcott's assumptions, it seems the Terrans have not only made good use of the Library, but discovered a means of interstellar travel that the Transvaal were completely unfamiliar with. They had seen other forms of Interstellar transit devices sure, ranging from Hyperspace Drives such as the extra-galactic Bentusi and Slipsteam based FTL used by the Galactic Federation. There was some debate as to what method of FTL the Valkyur used but contact with them was so rare, it could effectively be anything.

Takuto's orders were clear. Establish orbital control over the planet Earth in the Sol System as it's locals called it. Something was bothering him though, as to why the Terrans would sacrifice so much for one Destroyer class ship, even if it was the only ship they had that was FTL capable, it still didn't make sense to have it evacuate the system so quickly after the attack began, it would make more sense for the ship to try to acquire supplies and passengers for an exodus beforehand. Tact accessed the intercom and said "Angel Troupe, I am giving you a long range and extended duration mission. Track and Investigate the Terran ship that ran past the fleet. Do not destroy the ship, rather attempt to determine it's mission. If the ship is carrying any critical assets, disable it and tow it back to the Elsior, if this is not possible then abandon pursuit and return to the Elsior for further orders. Your squad leader for this mission will be Forte Stollen."

 **Archive Note:**

 **The Angel Troupe is organized differently from the Transvaal Imperial Navy's norm. All "Angels" whilst having an official Naval rank prior to being chosen for the Angel Troupe service, were listed by less generalized rankings and were ranked from D to S based on skills, achievements and the nature of their Emblem Frame, a type of heavy fighter that was capable of independent operations from a parent ship or facility. Most importantly however was that Emblem Frames were lost technology, relics from the EDEN Civilization that came before the Transvaal. The ships seemed to adapt themselves to their user's traits and tactics as well as being genetically coded to only allow their "chosen" pilot to operate them. Thus the Angel Troupe was split into three branches. Seraphim, who piloted Emblem Frames. Cherubim, which piloted advanced but Transvaal built Heavy Fighters and Thrones, which are a type of logistics corps, focusing on managing supply requisitions and other logistical constraints. All Angels are trained not only from the original branch of Transvaal service they came from but also specifically trained to operate Emblem Frames and Chariot class Heavy Fighters through both live fire exercises and Augmented Reality exercises.**

 **The similarity between Angel Troupe ranks and the Angelic Ranks of the Terran Christian faiths has been determined to be the result of the cosmic event known in accessed progenitor records as "The Great Merge".**

 **End Archive Note:**

On the other end of the intercom was a female voice, she replied "Understood, Angel Troupe will deploy as soon as possible."

The Elsior was a considerably large vessel, a wing of five heavy fighters, Emblem Frames specifically were launched from the Elsior's Rear Dorsal Hangar.

Leading the simple wing formation in the center of it was a purple rimmed craft known as GA-004 Happy Trigger. Each emblem frame was somewhat unique from the others though still shared the similar architectural design.

The other strike craft were GA-001 Lucky Star, GA-002 Kung Fu Fighter, GA-003 Trick Master and GA-005 Harvester.

 **Archive Note: Whilst the Elsior and Emblem Frames were originally the only vessels in the Transvaal's arsenal with effective omni-directional shielding, recent developments prior to the what the Terrans call the First Contact War, the Transvaal Empire managed to reverse engineer the technologies regarding omni-directional shielding after acquiring a similar design blueprint from the Bentusi traders which made both mass production and effective miniaturization of omni-directional shield generators available to any Imperial ship above frigate class.**

 **End Archive Note:**

* * *

Accessing Point of View: Commander Raymond Zenji, Location: KBA-2022 Asteroid, Kuiper Belt. +3 hours from previous archive file.

* * *

Ray sighed as he sat down in his chair in his personal quarters. Of the Endeavor's 216 crew, 192 remained, most of the losses being bridge crew and the rest being gunnery crew. In addition, their non-crew passengers, a unit of 80 United States Marines only lost one man, who pushed a crewmember out of the way of a falling slag of metal at the cost of his own life.

Ray quickly became somewhat angry at the complete lack of regard for sentient life these aliens seemed to have, mass nuclear bombardment, an unprovoked attack without so much as a token attempt at peaceful communication. Too many things were unknown and if not for the warnings of the Library, their high value asset that the Endeavor was carrying, they would have been completely caught off guard. In fact, it was the evidence in the Library that spurred humanity to quickly work towards the common goal of preparing for an extra-terrestial invasion, though it came much sooner than expected and with the exception of that specific capital ship, the designs and architecture they saw in the hostile fleet were not in the Library.

 **Archive Note:**

 **The Library is an EDEN Data Storage Device that was found in Japan during the year 2008 AD by Tsuruya Tsuruya, daughter of a wealthy Japanese family. She was temporarily on the Endeavor at the time of the attack to ensure the Library was safely integrated into the ship, thus she was forced into Exile during the onset of the war along with the other survivors on the Endeavor. The Library contains a vast amount of knowledge, even to this day not all of this knowledge has been successfully accessed as the Library was designed to only allow access to new technologies once other technologies in it's repository were not only accessed but also had a series of questions answered correctly. To say the Library is just a high tech thumb drive as the Terrans mentioned, is woefully inaccurate as it contained fully interactive programs and databases as well as being programmed with a variety of Terran Languages of the Modern Era, despite being more than 5000 years old according to carbon dating.  
**

 **End Archive Note:**

Ray was glad the manufacturing systems in the Endeavor were unharmed despite the harsh fighting with a technologically superior force, even more glad he could maintain his composure during his first military engagement, he was supposed to learn from the more experienced captain Ryu Nishinmura but regrettably he was killed before he could board the ship when the aliens arrived and swiftly destroyed the Terran Naval Fleet Command.

Ray made a decision to make a detour instead of proceeding directly to Proxima Centauri, given the damage they sustained, repairs were required and without any shipyard to service them, they would have to make the repairs themselves. Thankfully the Endeavor was equipped for self-sufficiency due to the nature of it's original mission which was to survey the local star systems for future colonization. Again, if not for the Library's warnings on the aliens they called "Val'Fasq" there would have been no resistance whatsoever to the invasion, perhaps this mission would not have been possible without that fear of a future invasion spurring the world's major powers to cooperate with each other, despite their differences and grievances, which was saying much considering how close Earth was to World War Three in the last six years. Originally the nations of the world didn't believe the warnings once they were made public in 2010, but eventually the reliability of everything learned from the Library after discovering the warnings as well as a focus on teaching us Military technologies over more civilian approaches such as a cure to old age, though eventually that was given to us as well. His thoughts shifted to his duties, a heavy burden at that. Most of their experienced staff were killed in the initial attack, not just their Captain. Ray was in charge now and now he had to make administrative decisions, who was going to replace him as First Officer and who would fill the now vacant stations of Chief of Security, Chief of Communications and Lead Science Officer. Not to mention their next course of action.

Ray went over various dossiers and drank a cup of coffee he prepared as repairs were underway, using the metal rich asteroid of KBA-2022. The Kuiper belt was not a navigational nightmare as portrayed in science fiction, asteroids could be miles apart, it was more like an archipelago than a minefield. Granted there was a few clusters of a dozen rocks here or there, but they were rare and usually the asteroids were smaller than the ship itself which was only 408 feet across from bow to stern. A Sci-Fi Asteroid belt would only be the result of a planet's rings, a massive planetary collision, rare circumstance or artificial placement.

He had decided after finishing his perusal of the dossiers, a feat that took him the better part of five hours.

The position of the ship's XO (Executive Officer, aka First Officer) would fall to Lieutenant Suzumiya Haruhi, age 31, a Japanese National, Commissioned Officer from the JSDF (Japanese Self Defense Force).

The position of Chief of Security would fall to Lieutenant Karasuma Chitose, Age 19, a commissioned officer from the JSDF.

The position of Chief of Communications would fall to Lieutenant Asahina Mikuru, age 32, Japanese. From a covert organization in Japan known as Section 9 that was recently formed. (It should be noted he only knew of it because of his position in the Terran Defense Navy)

The position of Lead Science Officer would fall to Lieutenant Dexter McPhereson, age 18, a commissioned officer from the United States Air Force.

Ray looked over the dossiers and pondered at how the crew would hold up given the situation as well as whether or not they should follow the original plan and construct a drone fleet hopefully more advanced than the aliens using the Library or if that were impossible, locate another civilization that would be willing to aid humanity. If all else failed, a quick surgical strike aimed at the alien's high command followed by a long and bloody guerilla war was Plan C.

Standing and setting his now empty coffee cup down, Ray tidied up his uniform and exited his quarters, ready to issue the new assignments.

Archive File End...

Access Next file group? Y/N: _

* * *

 **Afterword:**

 **I hope you enjoyed reading this. To clarify several things, this is set after Homeworld 2, but as these Bentusi are the ones who escaped during Homeworld: Catacylsm, they have no information on the Homeworld Galaxy's state of affairs, assuming the prologue did not clarify that enough.**

 **The Technology and ship designs of the Transvaal Empire, as well as the other races, will be slightly or vastly different from what you may know from Galaxy Angel, Metroid and Homeworld, due to a combination of things such as the passage of time, changing mindsets and completely different timelines from canon, thus this is considered an AU Fic. From what I know, the Transvaal in the games rely roughly on the same weapon systems the Terrans have in the beginning of this story, however to showcase them as being much more advanced than Earth in many fields, I've improved their technology considerably, mainly explained through trade relations and the spoils of war with the Bentusi and Galactic Federation. Though I will give the Terrans some advantages early on, (Left unchecked they would have become the most technologically advanced major power in the known Galaxy due to the Library's vast database on effectively everything the EDEN civilization knew during their prime in this universe, which will be greater than Galaxy Angel canon, like, on par with the Forerunners and Progenitors.)  
**

 **Obviously for upcoming Metroid stuff, Earth is not part of, yet alone the capital of, The Galactic Federation. The Federation in this universe does have humans and they do play the major role in the federation's politics but they are NOT Terrans (Earthborn). Thus Samus Aran (Who will appear in this story)'s origins are altered somewhat, though that big dragon/wyvern like alien will still have a role in shaping her mindset.**

 **I'm sure the TMoSH and Galaxy Angel fans who read this will probably be wondering about the future Mikuru is from with these events and Karasuma Chitose's name being listed as an Endeavor crew (and now Bridge Officer).**

 **Those questions will be answered, eventually, in the story.**

 **A word of warning for TMoSH fans. Haruhi's personality has somewhat calmed down from her high school days as she is now in her early 30s, more specifically, she is really unlikely to use closed space even subconsciously at this point due to a more accepting outlook of the world. She's still going to be eccentric in opinions and actions, but not to the point of being completely childish. As for how many of the SOS-dan are on the Endeavor, you'll have to wait until the next chapters answer that question.**

 **Another word of warning for TMoSH fans, expect even the iron willed Suzumiya to experience extreme psychological stress, considering something she wished for during her youth ended up happening in the worst way possible (The wholesale nuclear devastation of humanity for example)**

 **Most of the departures from Canon will occur on the Galaxy Angel side: Mostly due to me not having access to the games and having mostly seen the Anime and read only part of the manga's first chapter, thus most of my information on Galaxy Angel comes from Wikipedia and the Galaxy Angel Wiki site, which is one of the reasons why i will more or less be pulling most of the Transvaal Ship Designs straight out of my ass.**

 **I am aware that the games are primarily a Sci-Fi Action Romance VN/Strategy Game. Romance will still occur in this universe, just in less fantastical ways. Also do not expect anime-centric things like biology-defying (and physics defying) nosebleeds and supersized sweat drops, this is effectively a novel set in a universe that I'm trying to keep as close to reality as possible without sacrificing flair (which I believe is very possible, given that the real world itself is extremely fantastical on it's own, you just need to know where to look and how to do it.)**

 **I originally was going to make this chapter much longer, but sleep beckons me, until next time.**


	3. S1E2

S1E2: Bittersweet Encounters

 _ **Disclaimer: The following is a work of fiction upon fiction, I do not own Galaxy Angel, Dexter's Lab, Homeworld series, The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, Metroid and other third party copyrighted works in this fiction.**_

 _ **I do however retain ownership of the character Raymond Zenji, who is my personally created Original Character. As mentioned beforehand, the following is a work of fiction and any events and characters described in here are either fictitious from other series or fictitious from my creative imagination. Any similarity between these events and any other events, past, present or future are entirely coincidental. If these events have occurred or are occurring in another universe should other universes actually exist, this is also pure coincidence, as coincidence is a perceived reality.**_

 _ **You get the idea, on with the story!**_

* * *

 **Terran Defense Navy Terms:**

 **Port is Right, Starboard is left, Dorsal is Above, Ventral is below.**

* * *

Accessing files...

Sequencing files...

Establishing chronology...

Initiating playback...

* * *

Location: The Rings of Saturn. Date: July 10th, 2023 AD. Time: 2:22 PM, Ship-Board Time, Accessing Point of View: Raymond Zenji

* * *

The Endeavor was running silent, energy being used was minimum, the ship itself was hiding in a cave on a rather large asteroid in Saturn's rings and unmanned drones were along the surface of the asteroid, intercepting communications as much as possible in a passive manner.

They had been there for a while, Saturn's rings were the only known region in the solar system dense enough to hide the Endeavor effectively, it was a needle in a haystack as the saying goes.

Ray was sitting in a conference room in the Command Module, not far from the primary bridge which was under repair. The Endeavor's outer armor was repaired and according to Comm Officer Mikuru, the aliens spoke a language similar to Japanese though the dialect was unknown, Ray thanked God for the similarities as decrypting a completely alien language with no reference would be extremely difficult and time consuming, time was technically on their side, given the nature of their mission, but there was still the issue of the human lifespan, which whilst had been extended greatly, was still not at the point of effectual immortality. The other officers were present, chosen by him to replace the ones who were killed in first contact.

Some surface facilities on Earth have been broadcasting open communications across the solar system relating to alien positions and gathered intelligence. Surprisingly many things came to light. Things that made Ray deeply troubled. He spoke, addressing Karasuma Chitose, chief of security.

"Given the knowledge that these Transvaal are human according to the remaining broadcast facilities we will need to take security precautions for infiltrators, there is the possibility they may have embedded themselves prior to the attack, we know little of our enemy so we will need to assume they have the necessary stealth technologies to circumvent our sensors. We may have the library, but we have barely scratched the surface and this enemy is unknown, they are not what we were warned against."

Karasuma Chitose, Japanese with her hair seemingly dyed dark blue, age 19 was an inexperienced yet skilled commissioned officer from the JSDF, specifically their Ground Self Defense Force, it's purpose similar to the US National Guard. She spoke, saying "Reasonable, I will establish security checks, however I must point out that with Earth being occupied, we have to assume that sooner or later our tactical strategies will be made known. We should establish new protocols and remain in communications silence, receiving but never transmitting."

Ray nodded and said "I'll delegate security protocol to you, once you have worked out the changes send them to my personal terminal via hardline. All wireless communications is to be ceased effective immediately, we can't risk any chance of interception. Whilst we are already in silent running, we will need to take extra precautions given that it is very easy to detect things in space, especially if you're a nation experienced in space travel and interstellar warfare. Lieutenant Suzumiya, you and I will need to organize new maneuver doctrines later, until we have the time and leisure to do so however, all evasive and offensive maneuvers will be directly worded out. Not as quick to shout out but we need to be unpredictable, we can safely assume that the enemy will go to any length to achieve victory, given that they nuked more than 60% of Earth's military, political and industrial centers."

That knowledge pained the crew, though they must also never forget it. They were fighting an enemy with a total war mindset as far as they were concerned. Nuclear weapons were probably considered a conventional weapon by them, as common as bullets, given the vastness of space, it would make sense.

Suzumiya spoke, saying "What should be our next course of action? Any nearby star system should be assumed to be hostile, it pains me to say this but with what we know, we could be completely surrounded inside their civilization."

Ray agreed and addressed the Science Officer, Dexter McPhereson, saying "What have you learned from the sensor logs of their FTL?"

Dexter spoke. He was a full blooded Irishman of American citizenship though he did not speak with an Irish or American accent.

"From what I can put together, it seems that they do not use warp drive. Rather they use a theoretical type of FTL that we know only from the Library, to be honest, even I do not fully understand it, but I do not need to understand it to know it is effective. It is called a Chrono-Space Engine or Chrono Space Drive, it seems to operate in pre-determined lanes based on gravitational and electromagnetic factors. As we know with Warp Drive, higher gravity creates difficulties for navigation, CSDs operate in the opposite, the higher the gravitational source, the greater the navigational capacity, but even further, if a jump were to be attempted outside of an acceptable area, the ship could experience a cascade reaction that would cripple it. In short, they cannot travel outside our galaxy, though they move much faster than our Warp Drive, they can only jump to certain systems from certain systems. We can go anywhere. The galaxy is a spiral armed disc as we all know, flattened from the perspective of an outsider. I say we get our bearings and use the Subspace Sensor array to actively scan for signals whilst outside their reach. It would be easy to accomplish and a rather short trip, roughly an hour at maximum safe velocity."

Ray nodded and agreed, saying "Very well, are there any objections?". The room was silent so Ray then sat up and said "We will set a course for dark space, report to the secondary bridge, Suzumiya, have Navigational Officer Koizumi set a course for a position where we can effectively monitor as much as the galaxy as possible within the range of one warp hour. Dismissed."

* * *

+42 minutes from previous Archive File. Dark Space, 38 Lightyears from Star System ABL-119/2023

* * *

The Endeavor was pulled out of warp, violently.

Ray shouted "Battle Stations! Science Station, figure out what the hell just happened. Tactical station, ready all weapons!."

Mikuru shouted, saying "We are receiving a transmission, language unknown, library is translating, patching it through."

"The Keeper awakens, the Keeper understands, the Keeper has seen the enemy."

The Viewscreen of the Secondary Bridge magnified on their target, at knife fight range of 3 kilometers, considered close quarters in space warfare. The Keeper as it called itself was a frigate sized vessel with two forward wings, or rather fins and two smaller fins. It looked somewhat like it had four eyes and a constantly open mouth. The eyes began to light up orange.

Ray shouted "Hard to port! Deploy physical shields and direct all energy shields to face the enemy! Ready the HEFEL and fire when ready!" The Keeper unleashed a deathly accurate of yellowish orange beams of energy that effortlessly sliced off the deploying wings of the Endeavor's flanks and as the shields activated, reacted to the energy barriers in a blue and yellowish orange display. The Endeavor returned fire with it's Bow mounted HE-FEL, heavily scorching and smelting one of the enemy's weapons as the enemy fired again, having recharged in mere seconds. This time the Endeavor's energy shields were struggling, collapsing at the last moment as one of the arcs went clean through the endeavor, creating several hull breaches on the decks in the command module, thankfully, the secondary and third bridges were unharmed.

Dexter spoke, saying "Hostile Ship is deploying strike craft, I'm also detecting some type of quantum anomaly appearing behind it, the Library is calling it a hyperspace window."

Another ship appeared, exiting the yellow rectangular portal with some structural damage, the Keeper turned to face the new ship, resembling a half eaten doughnut made of metal and circuitry. The Keeper's strike craft continued on path to the Endeavor.

Ray spoke, saying "Now's our chance. seal all bow hatches and deploy ramming barriers. Drive the Endeavor at flank speed through their midsection!"

The crew responded, the strike craft were attacked by point defense systems are were more manageable than the keeper, though none were destroyed. The unknown ship that was to be the Keeper's next victim fired it's own yellowish-orange beam weapons at the keeper, both locked in a close range engagement of 2 kilometers. The Endeavor lurched forward, being on conventional drives, the crew experienced a sudden jolt like if in a car moving from 0 to 200 mph, it would have been worse if not for the inertial dampeners. The bow of the Endeavor quickly deployed sharp metal beams that closed swiftly to make the ship appear as a spear or sword blade, the Keeper started to move directly upwards to try and evade but had not enough time, the Endeavor hit the target moving at more than 8 kilometers per second, both ships felt the impact but the Keeper was worse off, cut completely in half by the impact, having no further time to react with any defensive systems. The Endeavor began to slow down and launched missiles at the strike craft which turned to attack the now closer unknown ship only to be destroyed by the missiles, which were normally designed to target frigates and destroyers.

Ray sighed as he relaxed somewhat, the ship was still at tactical alert and had suffered extensive damage, though they were alive. He spoke, saying "Damage Report."

Mikuru coordinated the ships hardline communications with the science station, Dexter read out the report, saying "Both flank physical shields and by extension our Atmospheric Maneuvering Wings were sliced off before the Primary Shields were raised. The Bow suffered structural damage though not critical. Primary Shield capacitors were overloaded but damage is minimal, decks 1 through 6 have a sufficient hull breach but are being sealed. 32 casualties in total, 8 of which are fatalities."

Mikuru spoke as the report ended, saying "We are being hailed by the surviving alien vessel, in English, patching it through."

"We are the Bentusi, it appears we were both the victims of a Progenitor ambush. We thank you for your quick thinking, very few survive encounters with the Keepers, even among our own people."

Ray spoke, saying "Bentusi vessel, I am acting Captain Raymond Zenji of the TNS Endeavor, we come from a planet called Earth. We are looking for knowledge on the state of the Galaxy, we are willing to discuss trade if you so desire."

The Bentusi replied, saying "Ah, Earth. We have heard of your planet, all that moves in the void is easily seen. A siege has been laid upon your world. Your enemy is no small foe, they call themselves the Transvaal Empire, our contact with them has been at arm's length. We can offer no special insight as to their interior workings, though we can say that they do have enemies of equal footing who would relish an opportunity, but beware, your galaxy's nations are untrustworthy, everyone seeks to gain an advantage over the other in ways far greater than our own experiences. We have scanned your vessel and detected numerous technologies and devices we have never seen before, most curious. We propose an exchange of knowledge, we also give our guarantee of silence regarding the Transvaal, the plight you seem to face reminds us of the exiles, the Higaarans from our galaxy. They were our allies and friends, good trading partners as well. In the spirit of good faith, we offer you tactical information on the Keepers, should you ever encounter them again."

Ray nodded, despite communications being verbal, likely out of reflex and said "Prepare for a data transfer, enact data quarantine procedures. Forgive me for being untrusting, but understand that our first contact was hostile, we must assume hostility in first contact situations from here on out."

The Bentusi replied, saying "We understand. We will comply with your Security Protocols."

Dexter spoke, saying "Data Received, at first glance, the Keepers seem to be remarkably advanced and." He pauses before resuming to speak, saying "We were lucky, it appears they can phase into another dimension and return in minutes, without breaking their Hyperspace inhibitor fields and also returning unscathed as if never damaged beforehand. Our quick melee maneuver destroyed them faster than they could activate the device. Data Analysis confirms no malicious software."

 **Archive Note: Progenitor Keepers are notorious for interfering with non-progenitor hyperspace travel, however they seem to also have a reduced but still effective interruption of warp fields due to the disturbed quantum waveforms. Archive Note End.**

Ray nods and speaks into the communications system near his chair, saying "We thank you for the data. We are eager to acquire any valuable military technologies you may have, we can work out what to exchange with a more direct communications link."

The Bentusi replied "We accept."

Time passed, the crew was feeling hopeful, peaceful contact with the Bentusi relieved the feeling of despair regarding a hostile galaxy, not everyone was out to kill and control them.

The Bentusi exchanged designs for what they called Hyperspace Drives, Ion Cannons, tactical data on encountered Transvaal Ships and general information on the state of their galaxy, that which the Terrans called Andromeda. In return the Terrans gave them their own general information about Earth, about the directional energy shields employed by the endeavor and their more effective plasma based warheads as well as information on the Warp Drive.

The Bentusi spoke once more after the main trades were done, saying "Before we depart, we wish to offer you knowledge in thanks, we have not confirmed it ourselves though we have heard rumors from travelers and distant nations. There is somewhere in the unexplored sectors of the galaxy, in the system you call Tau Ceti. A map or part of a map to an intact Progenitor Foundry Vessel. A prize sought out in futility by many in our galaxy, a massive ship roughly 15 Kilometers across. They produced entire fleets, stations and the large hyperspace cores used by the Progenitors in our galaxy. The location of the foundry is unknown and this rumor is unconfirmed, but we believe some information is better than none. How you use it is up to you. Should we come into contact again, we will be willing to exchange technology and materials, you know which materials which we value in construction, we classify them as Resource Units. Until we meet again, brave Terrans."

The Bentusi tradeship activated it's hyperspace drive and left the area, it's quantum signature suggesting it was on it's way to the Greater Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy in the process of being merged with the Milky Way, likely a remnant of some larger galactic merger untold ages ago.

The Endeavor salvaged what they could of the Keeper's wreckage and an inert yet somewhat intact strike craft and kept it in quarantine.

* * *

Conference Room, Command Module +6 hours from previous archive file.

* * *

Ray and his officers again met in the conference room, this time to discuss both their sensor logs and the data provided by the Bentusi.

Ray spoke, saying "I have asked Navigational Officer Koizumi to join us in order to discuss our next destination, but before that, we should recap what we've learned about the galaxy's political map as well as our own stellar cartographic findings, Dexter."

Dexter spoke, saying "As we've learned, Earth is not surrounded by the Transvaal but rather on the edge of their space. Furthermore, we are in a distant part of the galaxy, they have entered our region through a wormhole connecting their side of the galaxy with ours. They also only have a small expeditionary force in our section of the Galaxy, put simply, we have no chance whatsoever against this expeditionary force, yet alone the bulk of their armed forces. The last communique we got from Earth suggested they had an invasion force of 4 billion soldiers, enough to overwhelm all of Earth's military forces and effectively occupy the planet, given that they have readily used nuclear weapons in their occupation strategy. This isn't even a war as far as they're concerned, to them, they're merely colonizing some distant oasis inhabited by people a few centuries behind them in most respects of technology, though it seems we are more advanced than them in several key respects, thanks to the Library. They are also after the Library most likely as according to the Bentusi, they consider lost technology to be their birthright and anyone else possessing it is an affront to said birthright, to be considered either theft or a lost and found case. They however made no intent to simply negotiate or press us for the Library, it seems they intend to use Earth as a staging ground to colonize this sector of the galaxy, being that it's only one of six naturally habitable planets in what they call the Quragon Sector. More importantly, the Bentusi also gave us the location of three trade outposts in this sector that are considered neutral ground. One of which is in the Zeta 1 Reticuli system, populated by a race much like what we call Grey Aliens called the Inquisitive Ones in their native language, the Bentusi and Transvaal refer to them as the Zhal'Varn, which is the untranslated name of their race. Apparently the old star map from a famous abduction case was a map of their Trade Routes, though their role and intent in the apparent abduction is currently unknown by either us or the Bentusi. We also learned via communications intercepts using the Subspace Array that a medical transport carrying a Transvaal Diplomat is going to head to the Sol System from Tau Ceti in two days. Tau Ceti is within supply range, we'd be pushing the engines a little however due to a radiological anomaly surrounding the Sol System and it's neighboring systems Tau Ceti, Alpha Centauri and 82 Eridani, which make Hyperspace and Chrono Space approaches extremely restricted, however our Warp Drive can make an approach in the turbulent sectors, though we would only be warping space at a fraction of the usual velocity. We technically wouldn't experience turbulence, we would experience a decrease in relative velocity. Koizumi can explain the exact course we would need to take to minimize our arrival time."

Koizumi then spoke, saying "As we know, Warp Travel incurs time dilation, the exact difference can vary based on gravitational, electromagnetic and radiological factors as well as other possible unknown factors, including dark energy and dark matter, though those are theoretical."

Ray interrupted, saying "We can go over Astrophysics class in the Academy again in our own time, get to the point, time is of essence as McPhereson said, we have only two days."

Koizumi replied "Sorry sir. Our best possible course, accounting for both time dilation and relative velocity changes will have us arriving at our destination in 18 hours, not one."

Ray nodded and said "Forward data on this anomaly and these express routes to the ship's data-stores for perusal, we should make note of them for future operations. We won't have our physical shields so this won't be a boarding operation, our plan will be swift. We warp in at the system's edge, monitor the transport and when it begins to disembark from any docking bay, we make a tactical warp jump to within a few hundred meters from their hull, the computers can easily compute this jump, we'll have 18 hours to make preparations so have the Marines stand ready. It's a non-combat ship but it is still military and is carrying a VIP, we should expect security. Outfit all marines with Depleted Uranium rounds, data from Earth suggests the Transvaal have extremely effective personal body armor that can even safely guard the usual vulnerable locations such as the neck from our small arms fire and mitigate the effects of newton's third law. We'll prepare physical and magnetic clamps to latch onto the ship and then proceed on a warp course outside the galaxy to prevent the ship from being able to escape in any circumstance using it's CSDs. If most things go well, it'll be no fuss, no muss. Dismissed."

The officers got up and gathered their files that needed to be reviewed, Ray went to his quarters, squared away the files and then proceeded to the third bridge, where the marine commanders were stationed. Unlike the rest of the ship's crew, the Marines were not international services, they were specifically the United States Marine Corps, trained in newly expected combat situations such as Zero-G Combat and survival techniques in a vacuum environment, thanks to Cybernetics, a human being could survive in the vacuum of space without ill effects, excluding radiation, for up to an hour, without a hard-suit.

Ray entered and the officers present saluted, one of the marines guarding the door shouted "Officer on deck!" to bring attention to the entire bridge, the USMC here were mostly veterans of the third gulf war of 2020, fresh recruits were intentionally forgone due to the nature of the Endeavor's mission. A Master Sergeant by name of John Olivier greeted acting Captain Ray Zenji.

 **(Archive Note: Master Sergeant John Olivier, United States Marine Corps. French ancestry and whose family has a history of distinguished service in the USMC and farther back in family history, in the French Army. Veteran of both the second and third gulf wars. Captain Ray Zenji met him beforehand in the Terran Naval Academy and helped him with acclimating with Micro Gravity Combat Training prior to first contact. End Archive Note.)**

Ray spoke, saying "At ease Master Sergeant. It's been awhile." John replied with an American accent "Indeed it has. The days in the Academy seem so long past though I'm sure you're not here to discuss MGCT (Micro Gravity Combat Training)." Ray replied "That's not far off actually, you should be receiving operational details soon regarding a boarding action we will be performing. The target is a medical transport carrying an enemy political VIP, with any luck we'll quickly and efficiently deal with any security attache and gain valuable information from the VIP. I'll also need you and your men to keep effective watch on any civilians and non-combatants we secure with the transport. You're to be outfitted with hardsuits and DPU munitions. I'm confidant you can pull it off though I wanted to give you and your men a heads up regarding recently acquired information, it felt right to give it personally."

John replied "We'll take it straight." Ray nodded and said "Information from the Bentusi traders suggests that the Transvaal make use of both kinetic projectile and laser based small arms. Our hardsuits are effective against projectile weapons but still have limited efficiency against lasers compared to heavy armor, furthermore Transvaal Medical Transports are armed with two point defense lasers on dorsal and ventral sections, there's a good chance some of your men could be intercepted while boarding, you should make preparations to minimize losses."

John nodded and said "I'll do my best, but this is war, people are going to die, you've recently experienced that firsthand." Ray nodded in response and replied "I know, it still weighs heavily in my thoughts, which is why I need to take every precaution possible and make sure everything we could prepare for is prepared for." John nodded and said "I understand sir. Is that all?" Ray replied "Yes, make your preparations and be ready for action in approximately 18 hours. Dismissed." John saluted and said "Yes sir.".

* * *

+4 hours from previous archive file. Endeavor Propulsion Control Room.

Accessing Point of View: Security Officer ( **REDACTED** ) a.k.a. "Kyon"

 **Archive Note: Known in public records only as Kyon, the individual is currently assigned to Terran Naval Intelligence and as such many things about him will not be revealed for respect of the Terran Republic's National Security.**

 **In addition, some aspects about Nagato Yuki are also classified for reasons of respecting the Terran Republic's National Security.**

 **End Archive Note:**

* * *

Kyon looked at the screen the Chief Engineer, Nagato Yuki, was interfaced with. He knew her since high school,. including the fact that she was ( **REDACTED** ).

Nagato's expression was the lack-there-of, seemingly distant and cold to most of the crew though she did show this was not the case during the battle to escape Earth as she readily aided as many as possible when radiation burns had to be treated after being grazed by the Elsior's heavy weapon, now known as a "Chrono-Break Cannon" based on information from both the Bentusi and the Library.

Kyon spoke after making sure they were alone and not monitored, saying "Do you think you can tell me about the situation, now that we have time?" Nagato replied in a seemingly emotionless tone, saying "Suzumiya Haruhi is not responsible for the current circumstances. I can also offer no information regarding the Transvaal Empire, the weapon they used against us during the battle in orbit of the Earth has caused damage to my link with the ( **REDACTED** ) and thus I am unable to request or send information to it. Until as such time as my link can be restored, I am unable to alter the data around my surroundings, I can only make use of immediately available information. I can also confirm that until recently, the ( **REDACTED** ) either had no knowledge of the Transvaal Empire and Bentusi or chose not to imprint that knowledge into my memory."

Kyon sighed, both in relief and concern.

* * *

Simultaneous timeline with previous archive file's start. Accessing Point of View: Lieutenant Suzumiya Haruhi. Location: Her Personal Quarters.

* * *

Haruhi was laying down on the bed in her quarters. The ramming maneuver tumbled a few things over though nothing was broken, fragile personal effects she kept in secure storage. She stared at the red tiled ceiling in deep thought. She had given up her childish dreams of making contact with alien life before the academy, got her hopes up again when she heard of it and thus enlisted in the JSDF with the hope of entering the Academy and getting involved with aliens in some fashion, her parents were a little unnerved given the political landscape at the time, North Korea and all that, but for the most part agreed, hoping that she would be off exploring distant star systems rather than being stuck in the horrors of war. She thought about her friends and family on Earth, hoping they were alright. Kobe and Nishinomiya were unaffected by the nuclear attacks as far as they knew but whether the cities had fallen or not was unknown at this time and they were now out of real-time communications range with Earth, though they had lost contact earlier, likely due to the war.

She was angry, but held this anger in, not allowing it to affect her judgement, a benefit from joining the military was learning the discipline needed for it, which was difficult at first, though she was always good at adapting to difficult situations, if there was a god in this universe or beyond, she hoped they would somehow help or guide her and her friends, family and compatriots.

Getting out of the bed after her standard-issue wristwatch beeped, she sighed again. She wasn't expecting to be thrust into a position of such high responsibility so quickly but was glad that the acting captain trusted her capabilities to perform these duties. She didn't know him personally but she did admire his ability to react in difficult situations and avoid panicking. She got up and left her quarters, heading to the now repaired Primary Bridge. She arrived and took her position, the acting Captain over by Mikuru, who seemed to be explaining something on her terminal. She walked over to the two and spoke, saying "Captain, Lieutenant Suzumiya Haruhi reporting for our scheduled drill."

Ray nodded and said "Good, get to your station, we are still on a pre-planned route to Tau Ceti currently so we will be running a combat simulation alongside the USMC who will be making use of their VR Simulation Pods. Nothing too different from the others. The secondary and tertiary bridges will be monitoring the outside environment in the even of unforeseen circumstances outside our simulation.

Haruhi nodded and went to her station, a seat on the other side of the bridge, they had repositioned the stations during the repairs to limit any potential precision targeting by the Transvaal should they have gotten their hands on the Endeavor's schematics back on Earth. The thought of a hostile nuke-happy extra-terrestrial superpower occupying Japan unnerved her, it was like a nightmare she wanted to wake up from, but she knew it was real, there was nothing she could do about that, all she could do was make sure they liberated the Earth, if not in her generation, than in the next.

Captain Zenji spoke, saying "All hands prepare for battle drill. Calibrate the participating stations accordingly and execute at the end of the countdown timer. Lieutenant Suzumiya, start the clock."

Haruhi nodded and used the terminal at her station to start a countdown timer which ticked down from 60 seconds.

The simulation began, the viewscreen showed a simulated view of their current intel, plus a few additional hostiles to keep the crew ready for a worse situation.

Transvaal frigate designs that the Bentusi showed quickly reacted to the Endeavor and moved to intercept, attempting to get a target lock. The Endeavor executed a simulated tactical warp jump, the captain shouting orders and the crew following them. The Endeavor took some simulated hits from long range lasers but it's shields held as the jump was executed. Simulating a malfunction that Ray put in there to surprise and test the crew, the ship overshot the jump by 400 meters, forcing the Endeavor into a combat situation as it was now out of range of the tethers. The Endeavor's shields took more laser fire from frigates at various simulated distances from knife fight range of 8 km to long range targets at 227,000 km. One of the capacitors simulated a cascade which recorded simulated casualties in engineering, including security officer "Kyon" and Chief Engineer Nagato Yuki. The Medical Transport was making an escape maneuver towards a Chrono-Space Lane to get to it's destination, the Endeavor then targeted it's engines with a volley of railgun fire, disabling the engines and causing the ship to drift at 92 kilometers per second towards a Transvaal Battleship. The Endeavor caught up and matched the ship's drift and rotation velocities and deployed the USMC in boarding pods onto the small transport which was roughly a quarter the size of the Endeavor. Marines stormed and fought against simulated opponents in their VR Pods, they sustained no fatalities though six marines of the involved 20 sustained simulated injuries including a severed leg and severe third degree burns due to Transvaal Laser based small arms in the simulation. A Transvaal frigate rapidly closed the distance, intending on ramming the Endeavor which in turn discharged it's bow mounted HE-FEL and disrupted the frigate's maneuver by damaging it. The ship scraped against the Endeavor's hull but this only served to heavily damage the frigate, as the sides of the Endeavor were designed like the edges of a sword. The Endeavor latched onto the transport which was now secured with no non-combatant casualties save for the need to stun a few brave hero types. The Endeavor held off continued attacks and exited to Warp swiftly and the simulation was over.

Haruhi relaxed briefly when before she or anyone else could react, the Endeavor dropped out of warp due suddenly though not as sudden as the Keeper incident.

Ray spoke, saying "Tactical Alert! Secondary Bridge, give us a report, we're still in simulation mode here." A feminine voice spoke on the intercom, saying "A failsafe activated, according to the terminal, we've dropped out of warp to avoid slamming into a dwarf planet, likely a rogue planet as we are still in interstellar space. We're detecting an energy signature on the planet's north pole."

The primary bridge exited it's Simulation mode and so too did the marines and other participants exit the simulation mode and VR pods.

McPhereson accessed the science station terminal and said "I'm detecting Progenitor architecture in the energy signature's location. No sign of any keepers, however we are being scanned."

Ray spoke, saying "Remain in tactical alert and keep our distance."

The scans stopped and suddenly a hyperspace window opened in front of the endeavor and closed in on them.

Ray shouted "Full reverse!" but there was no use, as the Endeavor moved, so too did the window, continuing to close in on them, eventually enveloping them entirely. The ship for a moment was in a blue shifted environment similar to what they say when entering a warp bubble. another window opened, showing their normal space destination which was adjacent to the facility on the rogue planet.

Mikuru spoke, saying "We are being hailed, the Library is translating what it can." The voice hailing them spoke, saying "Welcome Divine One. As per our programmed directives we will be transferring the cipher. We hope you are able to revitalize the Progenitor Empire as foretold."

Dexter spoke, saying "Captain, a small corvette sized vessel is approaching, both the Bentusi Database and the Library identify it as a Mover. It is carrying a small metal cased object, scans are revealing no sign of explosives, plasma or radioactive signatures beyond interstellar radiation."

Ray was silent for a moment, staring at the viewscreen now showing the Mover on approach, distance, one kilometer. He then spoke, saying "Open Hangar Bay One, prep a security and science team to the hangar in hardsuits. Prepare to receive alien object. Do not fire unless fired upon."

The ship's crew and security moved as the hangar bay opened. The mover landed in the hangar, deposited the cargo and then left, heading back to the facility. As the hangar bay closed, another message came to the Endeavor.

"The Cipher has been delivered, it is needed to understand the Map. As pre-ordained by the Praetorian Oracle, the Divine One will do with it as they desire, for we know it will result in the revitalization of the Empire."

Another hyperspace window opened, sending the ship back to it's original arrival point.

Haruhi was a little unnerved at the sudden situation though was glad they were not attacked, it seemed too good to be true and indeed it was.

Dexter shouted, saying "Multiple Contacts just exited Chrono-Space! Library identifies them as Emblem Frames, they are registered as Friendly on the Library's database but sensors are detecting Transvaal markings on the hulls of the frames."

Ray shouted, saying "We've lost the element of surprise, deploy 12 flares in randomized directions and spool up the Warp Drive, take us to a CSL (Chrono Space Lane), we're going to have to make a blitz. Koizumi, give me an ETA!" Koizumi Itsuki spoke, saying "ETA to closest CSL is 12 minutes at maximum sublight. Plotting course now!"

The Endeavor's engines lit brightly against the unlit void, heading to the closest gravitational lane at more than 120 kilometers per second, the inertial dampeners were working but only could only compensate so quickly, for a minute, the ship's crew were taking one G behind them and one G below them (Inertia and artificial gravity respectively) but eventually the dampener fully compensated for the sudden acceleration.

One of the Emblem Frames discharged a high energy EMP at the Endeavor, damaging some of it's systems but not affecting critical systems such as Navigation, Weapons, Defense, Life Support and Passive Sensors.

The Center lead Frame unleashed a volley of high capacity projectile weapons at the Endeavor's smelted pylons which used to hold the flank hard shields and did significant damage, the Emblem Frames were 200 meters away from eachother in a standard wing formation and 314 kilometers from the Endeavor's aft.

The Endeavor returned fire with a volley of anti-strike craft missiles which did little to the Emblem Frame's shields, most were also intercepted by another emblem frame's point defense systems.

The pink painted Emblem Frame discharged a powerful plasma projectile at the Endeavor though the Endeavor made an evasive maneuver, going in a diagonal direction towards it's upper port position which evaded the plasma projectile.

The plasma projectile lost coherence 12 seconds and 300 kilometers later, suggesting it was not designed for long or medium range engagements.

Ray shouted an order, saying "As soon as we can warp to Tau Ceti, do so, in the meantime do your best to evade and counter incoming fire!" Haruhi was intrigued by something she noticed and said "Captain, it's my belief they do not intend to destroy us. They are not deploying the same ferocity of attacks their other strike craft have displayed, we should take advantage of this somehow."

Ray noted this and seemed to ponder what she had said and after another minute, the ship closing in on the CSL but still being overtaken by the Emblem frames, he nodded and said "Channel all shield energy to the direction of the enemy strike wing, reload all missile bays with 1-kt spears, target areas around the Emblem Frames and launch when ready!" The tactical officer confirmed the order and complied, launching a salvo of tactical nuclear missiles at the enemy strike wings and reallocated the directional shield emitter energy to the emitters in the direction of the enemy strike craft which began to open fire more often with a variety of weapons including missiles, lasers, kinetic projectiles and plasma projectiles. The Endeavor did her best to evade and intercept the varied attack whilst the enemy attempted to intercept the nukes with one of their Emblem Frames, most of the nukes were either disarmed or prematurely detonated at a distance safe from both sides, One detonated in range but the low yield did not impact the shields, however the enemy's attacks stopped, unable to gain a target lock due to the interference from the nuclear detonations, which in space were spherical blasts.

The Endeavor reached it's target destination before the hostile craft pushed through the blast clouds and made a jump to warp, heading to Tau Ceti, it would arrive much shorter than anticipated.

* * *

Accessing Point of View: Captain Raymond Zenji. Location: Tau Ceti. +12 minutes from previous archive file end.

* * *

The Endeavor exited Warp, the Transvaal had a significant military presence in Tau Ceti, ships were seen jumping to Chrono Space in the direction of the Sol system. Sensors were lit up heavily with the signatures of over 34,000 enemy vessels and more than 400 space stations, including their target station with the medical transport the Bentusi told them about, this was not their ideal situation, the VIP might not be on the transport yet and they have no hope to board the station and get him in time.

The only option was to snatch a different target, a target of opportunity and Ray had a sudden genius idea, risky at the time, genius in hindsight.

Ray spoke, saying "New objective, turn this ship around and even out the shields, ready the tethers and have the marines ready in the hangar bay!"

The crew was a bit confused but complied without objection, Ray had not failed them yet so they again put their trust in him. The Transvaal sent a task force to intercept the Endeavor but they were out of range, being at a distance of more than five million kilometers, out of effective combat range as due to FTL sensors, anything fired from that distance, including lasers, could easily be evaded or intercepted, as light only goes around 300,000 kilometers per second (or 186,000 miles per second).

Sure enough after a couple minutes, the Emblem Frames exited Chrono Space and Ray shouted his orders, saying "Target the pink one and then proceed north above the galactic plane as soon as we can warp!"

The ship lurched forward, the Emblem Frames arrived at near point blank range of 200 meters from the hull of the Endeavor.

The frame identified as GA-001 "Lucky Star" was bombarded heavily by EMP weapons which successfully shorted out it's shields after a few seconds, being underneath a Destroyer class vessel designed to tear open both fighters and capital ships alike did not help, even with the fact that it was Lost Technology. Several metal grapple hooks grabbed the Multi-Role Craft and magnetic clamps sealed it's fate, none of it's weapon ports were able to target the Endeavor at this point.

The rest of the frames began to break their no-kill policy and unleashed a fury of attacks unlike anything the Endeavor has witnessed before, tearing off the main guns and creating several hull breaches, the shields were also gone, literally gone as the emitters were not only overloaded but themselves destroyed. Some of the grapples and mag-locks were also lost but not enough and the ship's comrades were too late as the Endeavor jumped to warp, headed towards exo-galactic space.

* * *

Accessing Point of View: Second Lieutenant Milfuelle Sakuraba, Moon Angel Troupe Seraphim. Emblem Frame: GA-001 Lucky Star.

Simultaneous Timeline from previous archive file.

* * *

She couldn't believe what had just happened, the Terran ship had anticipated their pursuit and overwhelmed her Emblem Frame, a ship supposedly supposed to be inferior to the Transvaal's own Destroyers.

There was nothing she could do, her systems were still resetting and she was unfamiliar with this form of FTL, any number of horrible things could happen if she tried to escape while it was active. She would bide her time then and hope her usual luck would help.

Something felt wrong though, something odd.

She felt as if her usual blessing wasn't working in the presence of this ship, which should be impossible. She clutched her Laser Pistol and waited, as it was all she could do right now.

* * *

Accessing Point of View: Dexter McPhereson.

Immediately after previous archive file.

* * *

He wasn't sure of what he was seeing. The Endeavor's sensors were detecting a second bubble of space forming around their warp bubble, though it was different than a warp bubble, very different, so different even the Library had nothing on it. He logged the findings and placed them on a data storage device, he would have to discuss this with the Captain personally, the readings could cause panic if addressed openly and it reminded him of a conspiracy he was vaguely aware of.

 **Archive Note: Due to recent events, the Shinjin Conspiracy has now been de-classified. Archive Note End**

As time passed and the ship dropped out of warp, in a different area from where they were last outside the galaxy, Dexter pocketed his data drive and looked towards the bridge crew, the navigational officer was suddenly unusually tense and concerned, even sweating, he must also be aware of what's going on to an extent, he wasn't the only one, two others were getting similar reactions to the situation, two security officers.

Ray spoke, saying "I want active communications monitoring of Transvaal channels, Koizumi, prepare a course for the D'raan System on the Bentusi Map, it's out of Transvaal Space and supposedly rich in resources, we can repair the ship there and also take on a stockpile of RUs to trade with the Bentusi the next time we meet them." Koizumi acknowledged his orders, though Ray seemed to notice his concerned state and began inspecting the crew, noting that Dexter and two security officers were also abnormally unnerved, though Dexter was not as unnerved as the other three.

* * *

Accessing Point of View: Ray Zenji. Location: Endeavor Hangar Bay Two. +15 minutes from previous archive file.

* * *

Ray was waiting near a group of security officers and US Marines, the Emblem Frame was carefully towed into the hangar so that it's weapon systems were facing into space and not into the ship, inter-hangar defense systems were trained on the seemingly disabled vessel and sensors were constantly keeping an eye on it. The Bentusi had provided a translation key for the Transvaal Common Language, which would help them communicate with the pilot. They didn't get the political prisoner they wanted, but they did get someone who was flying an extremely advanced vehicle, surely they had to know something of importance. Even seemingly unimportant information like idioms and cultural traits would be valuable information, especially for infiltration purposes.

Something else was weighing on Ray's mind though. Something that he would have to consider with both himself and his crew.

This was a foreign aggressor from another star system altogether, having no ties known to Earth, thus they were not a signatory of the Geneva Convention, they had, in the eyes of the law, no rights whatsoever except perhaps basic human rights and even that could be argued against. His crew, many of them were vengeful, the security chief understood this and made effective security precautions not only to contain the prisoner but also ensure their safety, Ray was glad Karasuma was level-headed, this was necessary as you can't learn much from a corpse, at least not the things they needed to learn.

How to get that information was another issue. Torture is proven to be ineffective, Ray would need to apply psychology and manipulate the prisoner into giving him information, how he would accomplish this was almost beyond him, he wasn't a psychiatrist, the only two who were to be assigned to the Endeavor were delayed from departing Earth due to bad weather, which meant there were none on the Endeavor at all. He would have to make things up as he went along. His standing orders were simple, only himself, the XO, the chief of security and personnel personally approved by himself would be allowed to interrogate the prisoner and anyone attempting to exact revenge would be charged with treason and sabotage. Ray also had to consider the possibility of spies, given that the Transvaal are supposed to be human according to Earth's Communiques prior to losing contact.

The Ship was rather large for a fighter craft, more like a strategic bomber than an Multi-Role Fighter, it wasn't designed sleek and utilitarian like Terran Strike Craft either, it had a massive cannon strapped below it which was a hyper-velocity charged plasma cannon according to the Library, in fact the Library had extensive details on this Emblem Frame, including the fact that it was only controllable by specific individuals chosen based on it's limited AI.

The craft was mostly painted white, the HVPC (Hypervelocity Plasma Cannon) was unpainted and made of a type of alloy which appeared gunmetal in color. The trims of the spikes and other parts of the craft's white paint job were pink, the other emblem frames were individualized either to the point of personalization or individual class identification, the Library did not tell them which, yet anyway.

After setting a breaching charge on the rear entry, the marines detonated it to no effect. An Intercom on the ship's exterior came to life, speaking in Transvaal Common, cybernetics enabled the use of Augmented reality to provide subtitles to translate it.

The feminine voice spoke, saying "I can't escape this situation, I surrender. I respectfully request that I be escorted to your ship's prison section."

Ray was probably pretty sure she meant the brig though was unsure how accurate the translation software was. The hatch opened and the marines and security personnel readied, out walked a young woman, age 18. She had Pink Hair which was shoulder length with front bangs and what seemed to be green laurels with two pinkish white flowers on each side above the ears. Her uniform was white along the torso and arms, black around the shoulders and just below the neck. Gold trims along the boundaries., a pink skirt with a small black and gold pattern on it's bottom. She had rank pips on the collar and a red jewel in the central upper chest area. Her eyes were blue and her figure was somewhat slim, more like a schoolgirl than a military pilot.

Her hands were behind her head and she looked around at the armed guards, the looks on their faces could not be seen as they were in hardsuits. Ray walked into view of the prisoner and said "I am Commander Raymond Zenji, Terran Defense Navy, acting captain of the TNS Endeavor. Do you understand me?"

She nodded and replied, saying "Yes, I have a translator implant programmed with all known languages, including Terran English, all Imperial Servicemen and woman have them, they are standard issue. I am obligated to tell you that I will be unable to answer any questions you may have regarding the Transvaal Empire, it's Military Secrets and any information that I or my superiors deem compromising."

Tensions in many of the men rose as they clutched their weapons slightly more firmly, thankfully they were disciplined enough to restrain themselves, Ray as well was feeling a bit of anger, though he understood her position, if the situation was reversed, he would be under the same obligations. Ray spoke, saying "I understand, in your circumstances, I would be under the same restrictions at minimum. You will be escorted to Holding Cell C. I will warn you, as the Transvaal Empire are not a signatory of the Geneva Convention, you have no wartime protections whatsoever, it could also be argued that you are not human as we legally define it, therefore in the eyes of some, you have no rights whatsoever. However I will treat you with the dignity afforded to any human being, regardless of the views of others, however you will not be subject to the protections afforded in the Geneva Convention so do not expect any immediate comfort."

With those words said, she nodded silently, aware of her situation. Ray made a hand gesture and the marines escorted her to the brig, her ship would be analyzed as much as possible, perhaps if they were lucky, someone could be integrated into the ship's registry as the pilot and they would have a very valuable prize indeed.

A few minutes later, Ray was on his way to his quarters to write down what had transpired in his log when he was approached by the XO, Suzumiya Haruhi. She spoke, saying "Sir, a moment of your time. I wish to discuss something with you about the prisoner."

Ray nodded and said "Very well, what is it you wish to discuss?" Haruhi spoke bluntly, momentarily forgetting their differences of rank, saying "It wouldn't be ethical to use any type of enhanced interrogation, I'm hopeful that we can learn what we need to learn without going to that level and even if we can't, I wouldn't be able to participate in such actions in good conscience."

Ray listened and didn't interrupt, understanding her dilemma as he also agreed, he replied, saying "I understand what you're saying and I agree, though I'm not sure if the rest of the crew would agree and I'm doubtful on that. Regardless, we need information and if my approach is in conflict with your conscience then you may recuse yourself from interrogating the prisoner. However I do expect you to mind the chain of command, the next time you wish to present your personal opinion then request permission to speak freely."

Haruhi's expression seemed to give away that she now caught her error and she bowed slightly and said "I apologize, I overstepped my place."

Ray nodded and said "At ease, I'll overlook it this time, mainly because you're lucky enough that I agree with you. Is there anything else you wish to discuss?" Haruhi replied "No, that was all, permission to resume my duties?"

Ray replied "Granted." and Haruhi gave a salute, said "Sir." and proceeded towards the primary bridge. Ray then proceeded to his quarters, intent on logging the details of the operation they accomplished. He felt Haruhi had learned her mistake so he felt it unnecessary to mention her momentary breach of professionalism. But only this once.

* * *

 **Archive File End...**

 **Access next file group? Y/N: _**

* * *

 **Afterword time!**

 **So, I mentioned before that closed space was unlikely to form, that being said Haruhi is also going through both physiological stress and also something more related to Milfeulle Sakuraba. Those who don't know, Milfuelle has a supernatural aura of pure luck, pure luck meaning it can be both good and bad, though generally (to my knowledge) has never killed her.**

 **The external appearances of the Emblem Frames are a little hard to describe given the way they are designed, if you want a detailed look then check around google or bing images or find the galaxy angel wiki page. The Elsior and Emblem Frames will be unchanged as far as their visual appearances go, certain Transvaal ships will be altered or completely original.**

 **I may make a detailed drawing of the TNS Endeavor later but suffice to say, assume it looks like a cross between a Sith Infiltrator ship (Star Wars) and the Executor class Super Star Destroyer (Also star wars) but with the scale defined in the stories. Once the progenitors start showing up more often, you're going to see some really big things.**

 **Space Battles will adhere to the laws of physics as much as possible, anything like a lightsaber is NOT going to be an elegant laser sword, it's going to be a messy flesh exploder, heat rays (generally i call them Thermal Lances) will not turn people entirely into ash, they'll burn right through their bodies, turning the impact areas into ash, but not star trek level vaporization.**

 **In space, nobody can hear your nuclear bombs going off, so don't expect any detailing of sound effects while fights occur in space except for the occasional warping of metal heard because someone was standing on that warping metal and anything inside the ships pressurized modules. You might get sound effects from weapons that would make audible sound if they are say inside a planet's atmosphere or a dense nebula, because then there is something to carry the vibrations of sound about the environment.**

 **As I said before, Haruhi is much more mature here and also this will be cycling points of view, you will get both secular and non-secular viewpoints in this fic, if you don't want to read that, find a different story**

 **Originally i was going to introduce a keeper encounter much later in the story, but decided to introduce them and the bentusi more immediately to give them a more immediate purpose as before, they had no strategic command and thus were only engaging targets of opportunity, I also felt they needed to get some bearings on the galaxy to know where to go and what to do, since this is being told in the format of a historical record by the Bentusi but still also in the format being that all that you're watching here was either recorded or written down and then simulated in VR or on a computer monitor.**

 **As for anyone who has read my other fics trying to get this idea going, you may have noticed that Milfeulle seems to always get taken prisoner.**

 **Well my reason for that is because she's gonna be the Daphne in this Scooby Doo story, just roll with it. :3**

 **till next time, Kylandor.**


End file.
